Month: October 2019

Quickbooks

Creating Statement Charges in QuickBooks

Creating Statement Charges in QuickBooks

Depending on what kind of business you have, you probably have a preferred way of billing customers. If they walk into your shop and present a credit card or cash, you create sales receipts. If they order off your website, they might receive an electronic receipt. Or your arrangement may be such that you send invoices.

There’s another way that’s especially useful if your customers are responsible for paying recurring charges, like an ongoing service contract that’s billed monthly. You can enter those financial obligations directly as statement charges.

As you know, QuickBooks can create statements, summaries of a customer’s activity. These are generated automatically from the invoices, receipts, payments, and other transactions you’ve recorded over a given period of time. But did you know you can manually add charges to statements? Here’s how it works.

Creating a Statement Charge

Click the Statement Charges icon on the home page or open the Customers menu and select Enter Statement Charges. Your Accounts Receivable register appears. Open the list in the field next to Customer:Job by clicking on the down arrow and select the correct Customer:Job.

Warning: If the item will be attached to a specific job, not just a customer, be sure you choose the correct job. QuickBooks maintains a separate register for each.

Figure 1: Consider creating a statement charge instead of an invoice for recurring transactions that will not be billed immediately.

Change the date if necessary and open the Item list (or click if you haven’t created an item record yet). Select the one you want and enter a quantity (Qty) . QuickBooks should fill in the rate and description. The TYPE column will automatically contain STMTCH (statement charge). Click Record when you’re done. The next time you create a statement for that Customer:Job, you’ll see the transaction you just entered.

Statement Charge Limitations

Before you decide to use statement charges, keep in mind that:

  • You can’t include some information that would appear on an invoice, like sales tax and discounts.
  • Even if your charge relates to hours you worked for the customer, QuickBooks will not open a reminder window containing that information the next time you create an invoice for the customer.
  • You still have to bill the customers.

Billing the Customer

There are two ways to bill customers for statement charges. You can, of course, just generate statements that include the date(s) of the charge(s). The next time you create a statement for customers who have manually-entered statement charges, it will contain them, along with any other activity like invoices and payments.

Statements have been covered before, but if you need assistance, please call and a QuickBooks professional will go over this QuickBooks feature with you. This means you’ll have to enter a statement charge every month if it’s to be a recurring one. Instead, you can treat them as memorized transactions, so they’re automatically entered in the register. If you’re billing multiple customers for the same service every month, for example, this would work well.

First, you’ll need to create a Group that contains all of those customers. Open the Lists menu and select Memorized Transaction List. Right-click anywhere on that screen and click on New Group. This box will open.

Figure 2: If you regularly bill customers for the same service, like a monthly subscription, you can create a Group and memorize the transactions.

Give your Group a Name and click the button in front of Automate Transaction Entry. Open the list in the field next to How Often and select the billing interval. Choose the Next Date to indicate when this group billing should begin. If the charges should be entered on a limited basis, enter the Number Remaining. And be sure to fill in the Days In Advance To Enter if that’s applicable. Click OK.

Next, you’ll assign the customers who should be billed monthly to your Group. Click Statement Charges on the home page again to open your A/R register. Select each customer one at a time and right-click on the statement charge that you want to recur monthly, then select Memorize Stmt Charge. In the window that opens, give the transaction a new Name if you’d like (this will not affect the transaction, only how it’s listed). Click on the button in front of Add to Group and select the Group name from the drop-down list. Repeat for each customer you want to include.

Keeping Track

If periodic statements are your primary customer billing method, this system should work fine. But if you also send invoices and/or collect payment at the time of the sale, you’ll need to remember that your statement charges must be billed on a regular basis, too. If you need help going over your customer billing procedures to determine whether you’re using QuickBooks’ tools wisely – or whether some changes could improve your collection of payments, please call.

Business Tax

Rental Real Estate Qualifies as a Business

Rental Real Estate Qualifies as a Business

A safe harbor is now available for taxpayers seeking to claim the section 199A deduction with respect to a “rental real estate enterprise.” What this means is that certain interests in rental real estate – including interests in mixed-use property – are allowed to be treated as a trade or business for purposes of the qualified business income deduction under section 199A of the Internal Revenue Code.

Rental Real Estate Enterprise Defined

For the purposes of this safe harbor, a rental real estate enterprise is defined as an interest in real property held to generate rental or lease income. It may consist of an interest in a single property or interests in multiple properties. The taxpayer or a relevant pass-through entity (RPE) relying on this revenue procedure must hold each interest directly or through an entity disregarded as an entity separate from its owner, such as a limited liability company with a single member.

Qualifying for the Safe Harbor

The following requirements must be met by taxpayers or RPEs to qualify for this safe harbor:

  • Separate books and records are maintained to reflect income and expenses for each rental real estate enterprise.
  • For rental real estate enterprises that have been in existence less than four years, 250 or more hours of rental services are performed per year. For other rental real estate enterprises, 250 or more hours of rental services are performed in at least three of the past five years.
  • The taxpayer maintains contemporaneous records, including time reports, logs, or similar documents, regarding the following: hours of all services performed; description of all services performed; dates on which such services were performed; and who performed the services.
  • The taxpayer or RPE attaches a statement to the return filed for the tax year(s) the safe harbor is relied upon.

If all the safe harbor requirements are met, an interest in rental real estate will be treated as a single trade or business for purposes of the section 199A deduction. If an interest in real estate fails to satisfy all the requirements of the safe harbor, it may still be treated as a trade or business for purposes of the section 199A deduction if it otherwise meets the definition of a trade or business in the Section 199A regulations.

Help is just a phone call away.

If you would like more information about the qualified business income deduction, safe harbor requirements, or any other aspect of tax reform, don’t hesitate to call.

Tax

Expat Compliance With US Tax Filing Obligations

Expat Compliance With US Tax Filing Obligations

Taxpayers who relinquish citizenship without complying with their U.S. tax obligations are subject to the significant tax consequences of the U.S. expatriation tax regime. If you’re an expat who has relinquished — or intends to relinquish — your US citizenship but still has US tax filing obligations (including owing back taxes) you’ll be relieved to know there are new IRS procedures in place that allow you to come into compliance and receive relief for any back taxes owed.

Here’s what you need to know:

Background

Intended for anyone who has relinquished, or intends to relinquish their United States (U.S.) citizenship, the Relief Procedures for Certain Former Citizens apply to taxpayers who want to come into compliance with their US income tax and reporting obligations and avoid being taxed as a “covered expatriate” under section 877A of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (IRC).

Intended Use

The Relief Procedures for Certain Former Citizens apply only to individuals (not estates, trusts, corporations, partnerships, and other entities) who:

  • Have not filed U.S. tax returns as U.S. citizens or residents;
  • owe a limited amount of back taxes to the United States; and
  • have net assets of less than $2 million.

Furthermore, only those US taxpayers whose past compliance failures were non-willful can take advantage of these new procedures. Typically, this situation involves someone born in the United States to foreign parents or someone born outside the United States to U.S. citizen parents, who may be unaware of their status as U.S. citizens or the consequences of such status.

The Details

Eligible individuals wishing to use these relief procedures are required to file outstanding U.S. tax returns, including all required schedules and information returns, for the five years preceding and their year of expatriation. Provided that the taxpayer’s tax liability does not exceed a total of $25,000 for the six years in question, the taxpayer is relieved from paying U.S. taxes. The purpose of these procedures is to provide relief for certain former citizens. Individuals who qualify for these procedures will not be assessed penalties and interest.

There is no specific termination date associated with the new IRS procedures; however, a closing date will be announced prior to ending the procedures. Also, individuals who relinquished their U.S. citizenship any time after March 18, 2010, are eligible as long as they satisfy the other criteria of the procedures.

Relinquishing U.S. citizenship and the tax consequences that follow are serious matters that involve irrevocable decisions. Please contact the office if you have any questions about this topic.

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